Disclosure: In case you wonder, I am not now nor have I ever been a supporter, sympathizer or
rationalizer of bin Laden’s violent Jihad. The fact that I feel I have to even write this should give readers
insight into the climate of permissable discussion. I am not unhappy to see UBL moving on to the next
world. even as some belive he really died long ago. I agree: Good Riddance, but we need to analyze this
event more closely. Will it help end the war or will “our success” convince the Pentagon it needs to be
expanded? The issues of the raid’s legality need to be discussed.
Video Blackout Reported
CLG: Blackout during raid on bin Laden compound –The head of the CIA admitted yesterday that there
was no live video footage of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound as further doubts emerged about
the US version of events.
Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, revealed there was a 25 minute blackout during which the live feed
from cameras mounted on the helmets of the US special forces was cut off. A photograph released by the
White House appeared to show the President and his aides in the situation room watching the action as
it unfolded. In fact they had little knowledge of what was happening in the compound.
NYTimes Rationalizes/ Explains/ Defends Administrations “mistakes”
“In the view of officials from past and present presidencies, it was a classic collision of a White House
desire to promote a stunning national security triumph — and feed a ravenous media — while collecting
facts from a chaotic military operation on the other side of the world. At the same time, White House
officials worked hard to use the facts of the raid to diminish Bin Laden’s legacy.
“There has never been any intent to deceive or dramatize,” a military official said Thursday, asking that
he not be named because of ground rules imposed by the Department of Defense. “Everything we put
out we really believed to be true at the time.”
Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said that as more and more members of
the 79‐member assault team were debriefed after the raid, revisions inevitably occurred.”
INITIAL ACCOUNT OF WHAT THEY FOUND
NYT: After reviewing computer files and documents seized at the
compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, American
intelligence analysts have concluded that the chief of Al
Qaeda played a direct role for years in plotting terror
attacks from his hide‐out in Abbottabad, Pakistan, United
States officials said Thursday.
With Bin Laden’s whereabouts and activities a mystery in
recent years, many intelligence analysts and terror experts
had concluded that he had been relegated to an inspirational
figure with little role in current and future Qaeda
operations.